Let Emily Buy It

If you've seen these on tv or at the store and are wooed by it's promises (as I was) I would like to let you all know you can save your money. I tried them and I saw zero results (scrubbing bubbles? They need to change their name to Lazy Bubbles That Do Jack). They don't just gradually disappear in a week or so either (as advertised), they gradually disappear for about a week until the last half of the gel hardens and cakes to the side of your toilet device until YOU scrub it away (how's that for irony?). Lastly, it kind of smells bad. To be fair, I bought the green one which I think was citrus so the blue one just may smell like heaven, but this household won't be finding out.

By the way, I've always really liked Scrubbing Bubbles Bathroom Cleaner, so the company isn't totally worthless- just this product.

By the way again, this isn't going to become a regular thing like "Let Bill Buy It*", but perhaps if I happen to have an opinion about a product I've tried, I will state my opinion about it for the good of the masses. While we are going there (and to save myself a post), if you haven't tried Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser yet, get your butt to the store and purchase some. They are the best things in the world of cleaning products- they bring a tear to my eye. I swear they really are magic.

*Let Bill Buy for all you non Utahns, is a little blurb done by a local newscaster where he buys a product and tests it out for us to see if it lives up to scratch (they rarely do, except the SlapChop, that product is King!)

RIP, Old Friend

My dependable, trusty, never failed me Ipod Shuffle died today at the age of three.

She wheezed her last breath at about 11 am today surrounded by Emily, her adoring companion of all three years. She had just delivered a podcast of a brief history of Lord Byron and was about to load the new Scene Unseen podcast reviewing the movie "The Men Who Stare At Goats" when she passed suddenly without warning. She went fast and didn't suffer, which is good. She was born a surprise present from Rob, when Emily removed the sheets from her side of the bed one night, she was sitting there waiting for her and was her unflappable companion ever since. She served Emily through countless chores (and a recent root canal), delivering podcasts, Radiohead, recorded books, Radiohead and Radiohead. She survived some close calls being dunked in dishwater a few times, stepped on countless times, left in a burning hot car, a freezing cold car and once was even submerged for an indeterminate amount of time by Emily's sometimes mischievous, sometimes naughty young daughter Scout in a glass of apple juice (I guess it was a good thing it was apple juice-heehee sorry. I couldn't help the bad joke).
She was proceeded in death by about 10 pairs of ear phones, 2 docks, Emily's 8G video ipod, and 2 shuffles owned by Rob (I'd say 3 since Rob is on his 4th, but that one survived insurmountable odds to now reside at Sue's house). She is survived by Rob's light blue ipod and a sad lonely pair of ear phones.

RIP old friend- you were well loved, well used, much appreciated and always adored. Even though you were so lightweight, my shirt felt so much lighter without you clipped to it today and the house echoed with the podcast I never got to hear. You will never be forgotten even if I replace you with one of the new fancy shuffles that are so long and sleek and can talk.

Love you, kisses! Sniff......................sigh.

Halloween '09

Halloween started off this week with a church party on Wednesday I only found out about a few hours before it started. I had not been to church for some time since I have a newborn, so I am out of the loop. Anyway, we hadn't purchased Scout a costume yet (I'd like to blame that on Elinor too, but in reality, I often put off costume purchases and such until last minute). Anyway, I needed a costume for Scout and we put this together on a few hours notice and I was mighty pleased with the outcome:

in character


meowing

At the party playing the cake walk.... she won! (That is an action shot of her winning) she picked a caramel apple......of course.

The costume parade (one of the young women painted her hair pink to Scout's delight)

On Friday, she got to wear her costume to school for a Halloween party (she chose to wear the one we purchased which you will see in a moment). After school she had a birthday party to go to for a neighbor friend (her dad is named Micheal Moore- sorry I had to add that it makes me chuckle every time). Anyway, it was a princess party, so she got to wear her princess clothes. I probably should have taken a picture, but didn't think of it.

On Halloween day, we decorated Halloween cookies:I love Scout's by the way. I was lazy and used a cookie mix and canned frosting.... don't tell anyone. They tasted pretty good though, and a lot faster then my usual recipe and will do for this year. Maybe we'll do Christmas cookies.....
Then Cam and Sue came over for a visit and that was fun and there were plenty of beans to go around for that.

We went to the store with a puppy costume in mind, but once she saw this, there was no puppy costume that would ever do. Being 40% off (one perk to procrastination) and knowing that she will get her moneys worth wearing this long long after Halloween, I bought it for her.

Here is Scout in her unicorn costume.... About to ham it up in

5

4

3

2

1

And then we have Elinor. After shopping for costumes for a while, I deemed 6 weeks as -too small to wear a costume- and bought her a onsie instead and popped a hat on my mom bought her and viola--

First smile I have been able to capture on camera, even if it is only a half smile.

Contrary to what this may look like, she is smiling here too, but got a little too excited.

Definitely not smiling here

I love this picture! Very "rolling with the homies".

This is a classic Elinor look/stance

And a good yawn.......

And peace out

Elinor joined us in trick or treating in the wagon wrapped up in a billion blankets, daddy stayed home to watch the U of U game and to hand out candy. It was a very nice night to trick or treat, quite warm and Scout got a good haul and had a lot of fun. Then we went home and ordered a pizza.

Good times.

Fun with the new wagon

We took advantage of the lovely fall day today (while we can! There are rumors of snow coming this week) and took the wagon out for a jaunt. This is certainly not the first time test driving it, not even the first time this week. It is however the first time doing it with the camera and the first time I allowed Elinor to ride in there with Scout. She usually spends her time during our walks strapped to momma's chest in a Snugli. Anyway, it worked out having them both in there really well and we had a great time.

Thanks to everyone that contributed to the wagon gift! We are going to have many happy years with it!

Scoutisms

I don't know if it's because there is a smaller one in the house or because Scout is just giant now (those two are probably related), but I am waxing nostalgic about Scout's early years. One of mine and Rob's favorite things about being parents is the language your child makes up. Here are some of our favorites, a few still used today, but some have been corrected and are gone forever. Enjoy a small journey into my child's head:

Mewtercycle: A two wheeled vehicle one can cruise around in, instead of a car. A very popular choice of vehicles for Scout, even if her daddy can't stand them.

Lee: A word said in place of either "very" or "really". For example: I am lee, lee sad. or I lee don't like sauce.

Chir-rah-rah: A dog breed from south of the border.

60 years ago: Some time ago, anything that didn't happen in the last 12 hours happened "yesterday". As in, "mom, remember yesterday when we went to the zoo and we saw a gorilla climbing the tree?" -actual time: about 6 months-. I started challenging that and trying to make her get that yesterday is limited to events happening 24 hours ago. Ever since, she modified herself, and if something happened longer then a day ago, it must have happened 60 years ago. Example: "One time, 60 years ago, I went to preschool". We are still working on that.

Shurf: Something daddys do to their faces and mommys do to their legs. Example: "dad- you have prickly hairs, you need to shurf". Can also be used in past tense thusly: "Dad! You shurfted".

Sploosh: A completely made up word of Scouts, I find quite comical. Used in place of splashed.

Skedatins: A Halloween favorite- skulls and bones. Definitely Scout's favorite Halloween item.

Robock: A machine that works or looks like a human being and can do human tasks.

er-ee: Ernie from Sesame Street. We waved bye bye to this long ago, but is one of my all time favorite Scoutisms, so it was certainly worth a mention here.

Ladypops: AKA suckers.

Googala: Another completely made up word Scout has used for years and years. We have only recently got it's meaning out of her. It means hello.

Dunglees: Nightwear (pajamas). Completely made up again, and an all time family favorite that has pushed it's way into everyday Pugh family use. It has replaced the word pajamas in our household forever. Most of you are familiar with this one.

Late additions
(I'll probably be adding things here for a while as they occur to me)

"Are you kitten me?": Needs little explanation, especially when one is familiar with little girls and their obsessions with cats. Of course when mom and dad say that, they must be talking about kittens.

Yucky juice and water poop: Things that happen when one has stomach ailments. (Or if you happen to be Scout's baby sister, they are a way of life.

Lincoln hogs: A popular toy dated back to the 50's or 60's (I really have no idea when they came about), but Scout's nephew Booker just gave her two huge bags of them.

I'm sure there are more, but this is all I can come up with for now. Makes me wonder what wonderful things Elinor will be making up and saying.

Ps Elinor: no pressure to begin talking yet, Scout talks enough for about 5 kids at the moment.

Project Impact: Good bye Specialty Products

I shared my thought's on Walmart's Project Impact on facebook some weeks ago and want to share the same thoughts here too. I will be doing a series once in a while on here about this topic and focus on one main reason I hate this store. This post will be an introduction, plus some thoughts on some specialty products I've had to say bye bye to in the name of big business. Walmart has decided to take advantage of the economy right now by instigating a new plan called "project impact", the lighter side of project impact is a reface of their stores such as product placement, wider aisles, switching around the pharmacy, new happy clerks, etc. Sounds innocent enough. The darker side is their push in doing this to wipe out the stores that they haven't managed to wipe out yet. They are not hiding this fact and have their sights on the struggling K Mart and the craft store Micheal's. Apparently they are selling scrapbook stuff etc and displaying prominently many of the exact items Micheal's sells (for a lower price). Essentially, they are selling about 80% of the TYPE of products Micheal's sells (some the exact same stuff, but mostly cheaper and tackier knock offs). There is an article here where you can read about a lot of this stuff.
I have a lot of issues with this, my main ones being: I like going to an entire store that is devoted to arts and crafts, I like Micheal's products better, plus- I just plain freaking hate Walmart and their politics. My biggest issue on my mind concerning this, is the 20% of merchandise that Walmart doesn't carry that when Micheal's goes under will be lost forever. A good example of such an effect in my own life would be what happened in Utah Valley with cake supplies. I make cakes, and I now live in Utah Valley. Once upon a time there was a store called, "Shepard's Cake and Candy Supply". The store had an entire wall of cake pans, every color of food coloring in many different forms, cake boxes, cardboard cake rounds, a million cake fillings and flavorings, essentially everything a cake maker needs or wants. (Same too if you make candy (which I don't, but same deal for that). Anyway, many of the big box stores now have one aisle devoted to cake decorating. You can get many of the things you could buy at Shepard's, but not nearly all. As you may have guessed, because of these stores offering this stuff, Shepards was forced to close (one of the stores doing this is Micheal's so yes, there is a little of what comes around goes around). But, the stuff these stores such as Walmart don't sell, throw a major kink in my life. Like cake boxes and cake rounds. Orson Gygi in downtown Salt Lake sells most of this stuff, but not all, plus it is very far away.
So thanks to such shenanigans as these, there are many products devoted to cake decorating you absolutely cannot get in Utah Valley. That sucks.
Everyone has hobbies. Think of your favorite: scrapbooking perhaps? Photography? Painting? Cooking? Well, insert your favorite store to buy these supplies and if it isn't Walmart, it could possibly become a casualty of the evil empire and you will be in the same boat as me.
(Cooking is another favorite hobby of mine and if Spoons and Spice goes under because of this, there will be hell to pay. Walmart will never sell half of the interesting kitchen gadgets one can find there. I don't know about you, but I love living in a world where you can buy a gadget with it's only function being to slice avocados into neat perfect rows. Or a hand held cherry pitter. I only own one of these items, but it is nice to know they exist and I could if I wanted to.)